God deliberately not mentioned in Constitution

Letter to the Editor

Posted: Thursday, February 22, 2007

Alice Shannon’s letter to the editor (Jan. 29) is the most ignorant and unconstitutional thing I have ever read!

It has often been seen on the Internet that to find God in the Constitution, all one has to do is read it, and see how often the Framers used the words “God,” “Creator,” “Jesus” or “Lord.” Except for one notable instance, none of these words ever appear in the Constitution, neither the original nor in any of the Amendments.

The notable exception is found in the Signatory section, where the date is written thusly: “Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.” The use of the word “Lord” here is not a religious reference, however. This was a common way of expressing the date, in both religious and secular contexts. This lack of any these words does not mean that the Framers were not spiritual people, any more than the use of the word Lord means that they were. What this lack of these words is expositive of is not a love for or disdain for religion, but the feeling that the new government should not involve itself in matters of religion. In fact, the original Constitution bars any religious test to hold any federal office in the United States.

The First Amendment clearly states a separation of Church and State. Religion or the lack thereof has no bearing on citizenship.